Effortnesslessly: Hors d'oeuvres - Asian Style Mussels

Effortnesslessly: Hors d'oeuvres - Asian Style Mussels

Update

Hi all - sorry I haven't updated for a while - we've had a few things going on!

We had a great Xmas in the mountains at David and Jenny's place, then Boxing Day at Helen and Scott's place at Penrith, followed by a spectacular New Years Eve watching the fireworks at Jill and Alistairs place in Kirribilli.  We came down to earth with a bang bigger than any firework on New Years Day! For a few days before, Alan had been a little unsteady on his feet and slightly confused.  He woke up on New Year's Day with a headache and didn't feel great.  I rang the oncology registrar at the hospital and they suggested I took him into emergency.  Then the fun started.

He had almost every test under the sun and we went through a roller coaster of emotions after being told firstly that they would be giving us a palliative care contact as it looked like the tumour had come back already.  That was after a scan and the fact that he was unsteady and confused.  Then, a couple of hours later when blood tests came back, they said his sodium levels were extremely low which could in itself cause the walking and confusion problems! They put him on a steroid for the swelling on his brain and restricted fluid intake for the sodium problem and hey presto, as soon as the sodium went back to normal so did his walking etc.

They kept him in hospital until yesterday - one of the problems was that because it was over a holiday period, they were running with skeleton staff, and although the doctors on duty were doing their best, they are not specialists and therefore can only give you their opinion - we didn't like to listen to their opinions and we're happy to see one of our Neurology team.  The chemotherapy oncologist ordered an MRI and said that in her opinion the swelling and associated tissue was caused by radiation damage which can take more than 6 months to show up - guess how long it's been since he had radiation? Anyway , to cut a long story short, she's put him on a different kind of chemotherapy, smaller does and more often, so 20 days per month instead of 5 days.  She also sent a piece of tissue to be tested for a clinical trial which is starting in Sydney at the end of January so fingers crossed.

Then an appointment was arranged with our Neuro Surgeon for his opinion on the MRI - he was on the same lines as her - radiation damage - so for us another sigh of relief.  They leave nothing to chance, however and we have a third opinion coming up on Thursday when we see our radiation oncologist followed by a PET scan next week.  We are exhausted just thinking about it all.

Sorry to be so detailed about it all but I wanted to let everyone know without having to tell the tale over and over again!

Today we slept in and have had a pleasant quiet day after the turmoil of the past few days.  We are looking forward to another quiet day tomorrow.  It's Alan's birthday but we won't be going overboard with the celebrations, at least he won't be, he's not allowed any alcohol on this new medication so I'll just have to make up for it!!!

On our way to who knows where!

I'm amazed that we are on our way to Sydney - we couldn't have done it without some amazing friends and neighbours.  The thing we will miss most about Commissioners Creek, is not the house ( although we love it) is the community spirit that we have to leave behind. The friends who were there at a moments notice, the fresh veggies and eggs left on the verandah at 6am in the morning, the people who ring us everyday to make sure we are OK - it just goes on and on. We will miss you all.

We eventually reached Macksville after leaving home 2 and a half hours after the time we'd planned! Booked into our motel and went out for a much needed Chinese meal.  Alas it was not to be - the Saturday before Xmas - no way - no booking - ha ha - we ended up with a takeaway pizza delivered to the room so hot we almost couldn't eat it (I managed after 2 bottles of wine!). Alan had 1 piece and promptly got into bed, poor thing, he was looking forward to a Chinese omelette), maybe tomorrow night.

He did amazingly well today, considering he had to get used to letting me drive, luckily there was not much traffic about so hopefully we'll have the same tomorrow.

He has "Chemo Brain" at the moment - very vague - at least it is short term (I hope!) and I'll get back my beautiful man.  Having said that, he managed to navigate here without any problem.  It has been very stressful the last few weeks so we were glad to escape today.

I have struggled holding back tears today and will be in touch with all our friends individually in the next few days.

Meanwhile, we wish everyone a very merry Xmas and a happy and healthy new year - enjoy, wherever you are and spread lots of love to all the people around you - validate your love to everyone who means something to you.

Alan and Helen xox

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Mixed feelings!

Well.......we did it, much earlier than expected!  The house sold to the first people who saw it! We'd like to think that they felt the love we've put into it and the happiness we've felt here.

Now it's all systems go as we make ready to move out before Xmas. Luckily, we have some amazing friends who are rallying round to give a hand.  Russell, John and Pete finished lining out the extension - they've done an amazing job.  It would have been nice to see it painted and finished completely, but the purchasers have kindly let us off with doing anymore.  It still looks fantastic.

We are starting to detach ourselves as we go through the inevitable rubbish and stuff that we've managed to accumulate over the years.  This will be our biggest clear out yet! The new owners are buying some of our furniture and shed stuff so I keep telling myself it's not as bad as it seems. Paul has been great, helping Alan to load trailers and taking him to the tip as,of course, he is not able to drive. It has helped enormously, as I couldn't reverse a trailer to save my life!! And it's freed me up to do the more domestic things like wrapping ornaments!

Nikki, Colleen and Brian gave us a full day yesterday and we almost got the shed into some semblance of order. Alan starts his next lot of chemo this morning so we are having a day off but they will be back tomorrow to continue.  We are so grateful. I knew all those pizza days and dinners would pay off!!

Everything is falling into place and we look forward to spending Xmas and New Year with our family before going on to a new chapter in our lives, God willing.

The main thing is that Alan is still doing well so we hope it continues to be so.

Love to all who read this blog.

Relief!

Here we are again back in Sydney for yet another MRI.  This time we were full of trepidation. On Tuesday morning, the day we were flying down, Alan woke at around 4.30am and suffered a bad dizzy spell. Naturally, we thought the worst and were seriously thinking we wouldn't even make it to Sydney but would end up in Tweed hospital!

We were staying with friends at Kingscliff who had volunteered to drive us to the airport.  Fortunately, after a long rest and a call to our oncologist in Sydney, we decided to continue on our journey after taking a couple of steroids.

Since then we have had no other incidents. Today the MRI and our specialist visit this afternoon.  The MRI showed that the White spots hadn't really changed since last month, in fact one of them looked slightly smaller so still looking like radiation scarring. They won't actually say for definite that it's not another tumour but we are as happy as we can be to remain positive.  What a relief.  We both were so worried without saying anything to each other.  Tonight we are celebrating, albeit in a small way - scrambled eggs on toast and a bottle of sparkling Villa Maria (Alan's choice!) gotta love the man - he knows what he likes!

For those of you who saw the Facebook photos, look at this one above, he is so much better and looks great.

Meanwhile, our great friends at home have been working on our dining room extension, for which we are eternally grateful. Without them we would not have been able to even contemplate putting the house on the market.  We have had a second inspection and are hoping, all going well, that things will progress positively.

We are looking forward to meeting our new great grand daughter, Amelia, at the weekend, before returning home on Monday.  Once again, thank you all for reading and caring, we really appreciate your support.

Follow up

Sorry, I missed writing about when we went home for a couple of weeks and how well Alan did cutting the front paddock on the ride-on even though he's not supposed to drive even that!!

Anyway we have been back in Sydney for the past 2 weeks for the "follow up".  Not quite the results we were hoping for but not too bad either.  There are a couple of "white spots" which have appeared outside of the removed tumour area, it could be the effects of the radiation treatment or possibly another tumour.  They say it is too early to tell so we have to come back at the end of November for another MRI - hopefully this one will show that it's only scarring.

We have an appointment in Lismore next week with the local oncologist who will be giving Alan his next lot of chemotherapy and monitoring his progress but here we are playing the waiting game again.

I'm trying to persuade him to go to UK and Europe for Xmas but he's not getting very enthusiastic over the idea.  Still.......I'll keep going and maybe I'll find something he'd like to do (it takes a while for him to get his head around things).  Tasmania, Norfolk Island, Tahiti, Vietnam.............the possibilities are endless. Heres hoping.

We've been on the water again today - ferry to Darling Harbour for lunch, light rail to Central, then train to Milsons Point - it sure is great not having to use a car!!!!!

When we get home I'll post some photographs - once again sorry for not being so slack on the updates and thanks again for caring.

What will be - will be!

This is a difficult post for me - we made the decision to put the house on the market.  Who knows if it sells or how long it will take but we know we will not be able to manage it on our own.  We also know that we wouldn't be on our own as we have such a great community here, our friends and neighbours have already offered their assistance and would do it willingly............but it's not the same. It's not so much the physical aspect but rather the frustration of not being able to see properly.  Don't get me wrong, he is adapting well and we know there are people who cope very well with vision problems.  We just have to find him other things to do and enjoy.

Alan and my brother, Tommy, doing what they love!

One of the reasons we love it here.

The end result (sorry, photos are in wrong order but I don't really know what I'm doing!)

On a more positive note, Alan continues to do well - a lot more tired than before but nonetheless coping well.  He is losing the extra weight put on while he was taking steroids and is almost back to normal.  It takes a lot out of him just to have visitors, the mental strain of showing how "good" he feels. We are not too concerned, as we've been told more than once, that this would happen.  I still make him take a walk each day, not to have a coffee in a boutique cafe though, but to the mail box and back up the hill!  If you've ever walked up our hill, you'll know how hard that is!! We walked over to the dam paddock yesterday and disturbed a pair of ducks with their family of tiny ducklings racing between the water lilies.

We leave on Saturday for another 2 weeks in Sydney and a review with the oncologists which we hope will give us good news regarding his progress. I'll keep you posted.